Written By: Austin Holland
The 6th ranked team in the nation, the Louisville Cardinals (21-5) host a tenacious Virginia Tech Hokies (18-7) at the KFC Yum Center, on Saturday, February 18th. The Cardinals are coming off two hard-earned victories this past week. One against the Miami Hurricanes, after making a miraculous second half comeback to win, 71-66 and the second victory was against a powerful Syracuse team who took the cards to the lithat played a very tough game but to no avail as the Cardinals pulled off an overtime victory, 76-72.
Louisville guard Quentin Snider has been the talk of the town after making his return after a month of dealing with injuries. Against Miami, he scored 13 points, including a huge three-pointer in the final minute of the game. Louisville has been a strong team all season, but occasionally they struggle in the first half of games but are able to play well in the second half. These struggles are very uncharacteristic for a top-tier team. Guard Donavan Mitchell and center Mangok Mathiang have led the Cards to a 21-5 record, but only a 6-5 record against teams in the top 25. Louisville is currently 4th in the Atlantic Coast Conference standings behind only Florida State, Duke and North Carolina. With a victory over Virginia Tech though, they could take over the second spot in the standings heading into top 10 match up with North Carolina, to determine who will have the number one seed in the ACC tournament.
Virginia Teach is currently unranked in the AP poll and sit eighth in the ACC standings. Since an embarrassing loss to Miami, Virginia Tech has won two straight games. One of those victories was a double overtime win against the, at the time, 12th ranked team in the nation in Virginia. Virginia Tech also beat a tough Pittsburgh team two days later by a score of 66-63.
Virginia Tech is led by forward Zach LeDay who leads the team in scoring, averaging roughly 15 points per game. Guard Justin Robinson leads the team in assists, averaging 4.3 assists per game. As Virginia Tech is currently ranked 8th in the ACC standings they look to close out their regular season strong and maybe finish with a four or five seed in the tournament. In addition to Louisville, Virginia Tech will close out the season with games against Clemson, Boston College, Wake Forest and a tough Miami team that has already knocked off the Hokies once this season. Virginia Tech currently holds a 2-4 record against teams in the top 25, so this game against 8th ranked Louisville could be a tough matchup for them.
Virginia Tech heads into this game averaging roughly 78 points per game while Louisville averages 77 points per game. One may think that this could mean Virginia Tech will win but you shouldn’t go make your game predictions just yet as Louisville has a very tough defense. They currently are holding their opponents to an average of 63 points per game. In comparison to the Virginia Tech defense, who are only holding their opponents to an average of roughly 73 points per game.
The real story of this game is if the Cardinals can come out on fire as they did early in the season and fix their first half struggles, they will win the game. Virginia Tech could very possibly pull off the very unlikely upset as they have been known to do though in the past. 74-70
Final prediction: Louisville struggles early and led by Mitchell, they rebound in the second half and defeat Virginia Tech, 74-70.
Louisville guard Quentin Snider has been the talk of the town after making his return after a month of dealing with injuries. Against Miami, he scored 13 points, including a huge three-pointer in the final minute of the game. Louisville has been a strong team all season, but occasionally they struggle in the first half of games but are able to play well in the second half. These struggles are very uncharacteristic for a top-tier team. Guard Donavan Mitchell and center Mangok Mathiang have led the Cards to a 21-5 record, but only a 6-5 record against teams in the top 25. Louisville is currently 4th in the Atlantic Coast Conference standings behind only Florida State, Duke and North Carolina. With a victory over Virginia Tech though, they could take over the second spot in the standings heading into top 10 match up with North Carolina, to determine who will have the number one seed in the ACC tournament.
Virginia Teach is currently unranked in the AP poll and sit eighth in the ACC standings. Since an embarrassing loss to Miami, Virginia Tech has won two straight games. One of those victories was a double overtime win against the, at the time, 12th ranked team in the nation in Virginia. Virginia Tech also beat a tough Pittsburgh team two days later by a score of 66-63.
Virginia Tech is led by forward Zach LeDay who leads the team in scoring, averaging roughly 15 points per game. Guard Justin Robinson leads the team in assists, averaging 4.3 assists per game. As Virginia Tech is currently ranked 8th in the ACC standings they look to close out their regular season strong and maybe finish with a four or five seed in the tournament. In addition to Louisville, Virginia Tech will close out the season with games against Clemson, Boston College, Wake Forest and a tough Miami team that has already knocked off the Hokies once this season. Virginia Tech currently holds a 2-4 record against teams in the top 25, so this game against 8th ranked Louisville could be a tough matchup for them.
Virginia Tech heads into this game averaging roughly 78 points per game while Louisville averages 77 points per game. One may think that this could mean Virginia Tech will win but you shouldn’t go make your game predictions just yet as Louisville has a very tough defense. They currently are holding their opponents to an average of 63 points per game. In comparison to the Virginia Tech defense, who are only holding their opponents to an average of roughly 73 points per game.
The real story of this game is if the Cardinals can come out on fire as they did early in the season and fix their first half struggles, they will win the game. Virginia Tech could very possibly pull off the very unlikely upset as they have been known to do though in the past. 74-70
Final prediction: Louisville struggles early and led by Mitchell, they rebound in the second half and defeat Virginia Tech, 74-70.